The new armor system. (50% + 50% = 75%!?!?)

[Spidweb]

Ancalagonthe Black asked a question in another thread that I though deserved its own topic.

 

"Jeff-why did you go from the exile system where 50% reduction + 50% reduction = 75% reduction to the more recent system of being 100% reduction? (This applies to traits as well)."

 

I think you have this backwards ... it's the new system that has 50% + 50% = 75%. (i.e. the first piece blocks half of the damage and the second blocks half of the remaining damage)

 

The reason for the new system (which I am VERY happy with and will stick with indefinitely) is that it makes the game much easier to balance, while continuing to have additional armor make a difference.

 

With the new system, you can never entirely block out damage. The foes can always hit you. But new pieces of armor will always help out more. In the older games, it was possible to stack up pieces of armor to make yourself immune to damage. This is a very very bad thing for a game.

 

Of course, some people still find Avernum 4 too easy. But then, I've never played an RPG that I wasn't able to make too easy with care. But I have to balance the games so that more casual gamers have a chance. If the hardcore Avernum fans find the game hard, it's too tough.

 

- Jeff Vogel

[Qualicide]

makes sense mathimatically anyway. 50% of 50% is 25% so you get 75% total.

[Khoth]

I like the new way much better than the old one. However, one request for next time:

Make it so that if I wear two 50% protection items, it says 75% rather than 100%.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Thanks for the explanation, Jeff.

I agree that the posted percentages should reflect reality; if only 75% of damage is being deflected, it should say that. If luck doesn't help armor, it shouldn't look like it does.

Does this way of doing things work for armor, too? It certainly seems like my tank with 96% armor took hardly any damage, ever, at least from melee attacks.

And, finally, I also think it should be true for traits, as well, which could allow you to go back to allowing multiple traits on one character.

Thanks!

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by AncalagonTheBlack:
Does this way of doing things work for armor, too? It certainly seems like my tank with 96% armor took hardly any damage, ever, at least from melee attacks.

That probably has more to do with your Parry skill than your armour. Parry reduces melee damage by a lot, even when it doesn't block an atttack completely. Try it; a mage wearing comparable amounts of armour to your fighter but without Parry will take significantly more damage. Hell, your fighter could probably walk around naked and still take less damage in melee than your mage.

Quote:

And, finally, I also think it should be true for traits, as well, which could allow you to go back to allowing multiple traits on one character.

Not sure if I agree about this one. Back when there was no limit on number of traits on each character, players tended to take all the useful advantages and all the harmless disadvantages. (8% more XP in exchange for a slight increase in vulnerability to poison? 15% less XP in exchange for ludicrously fast HP regeneration? Yes, please!) Now that there's a limit, players occasionally have to make difficult choices about which traits they want.

[Alorael at Large]

The traits before were meaningless, because the effectively bottomless sources of experience meant that patience could make even an all advantage, no disadvantage character come out fine. Many advantages had low penalties for their bonuses.

 

Avernum still heavily encourages the positive traits, but at least you can't throw them all on. If you did, I think it might be possible to cripple a character with too little experience.

 

—Alorael, who does miss being able to have a Fast on Divinely Nimble Elite Pure Mage. The name is so exciting!